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RBI AS REGULATORY

The central bank of the country is the Reserve


Bank of India (RBI).

Established in April 1935 with a share capital
of Rs. 5 crores on the basis of the
recommendations of the Hilton Young
Commission.

Reserve Bank of India was nationalised in the
year 1949.

The general superintendence and direction of the Bank
is entrusted to
Central Board of Directors of 20 members,
The Governor
Four Deputy Governors
One Government official from the Ministry of Finance
Fifteen nominated Directors by the Government
to give representation to important elements in the
economic life of the country, and four nominated
Directors by the Central Government to represent the
four local Boards with the headquarters at Mumbai,
Kolkata, Chennai and New Delhi.
Local Boards consist of five members each Central
Government appointed for a term of four years to
represent territorial and economic interests and the
interests of co-operative and indigenous banks

The Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934 was commenced
on April 1, 1935. The Act, 1934 (II of 1934) provides the
statutory basis of the functioning of the Bank.

The Bank was constituted for the need of following:
To regulate the issue of banknotes
To maintain reserves with a view to securing monetary
stability, Financial Stability and Price Stability
To operate the credit and currency system of the
country to its advantage.

Functions of Reserve Bank of India

The Reserve Bank of India Act of 1934 entrust all
the important functions of a central bank the
Reserve Bank of India.

Bank of Issue

U/S 22 of the R.B.I. Act, the Bank has the sole
right to issue bank notes of all denominations.
The distribution of one rupee notes and coins and
small coins all over the country is undertaken by
the Reserve Bank as agent of the Government.
The Reserve Bank has a separate Issue
Department which is entrusted with the issue of
currency notes. The assets and liabilities of the
Issue Department are kept separate from those of
the Banking Department.

Originally, the assets of the Issue Department were
to consist of not less than two-fifths of gold coin,
gold bullion or sterling securities provided the
amount of gold was not less than Rs. 40 crores in
value. The remaining three-fifths of the assets might
be held in rupee coins, Government of India rupee
securities, eligible bills of exchange and promissory
notes payable in India. Due to the exigencies of the
Second World War and the post-was period, these
provisions were considerably modified. Since 1957,
the Reserve Bank of India is required to maintain
gold and foreign exchange reserves of Ra. 200
crores, of which at least Rs. 115 crores should be in
gold. The system as it exists today is known as the
minimum reserve system.



Bankers' Bank and Lender of the Last Resort

The Reserve Bank of India acts as the bankers' bank. According
to the provisions of the Banking Companies Act of 1949, every
scheduled bank was required to maintain with the Reserve Bank
a cash balance equivalent to 5% of its demand liabilites and 2
per cent of its time liabilities in India. By an amendment of 1962,
the distinction between demand and time liabilities was
abolished and banks have been asked to keep cash reserves
equal to 3 per cent of their aggregate deposit liabilities. The
minimum cash requirements can be changed by the Reserve
Bank of India.

The scheduled banks can borrow from the Reserve Bank of
India on the basis of eligible securities or get financial
accommodation in times of need or stringency by rediscounting
bills of exchange. Since commercial banks can always expect
the Reserve Bank of India to come to their help in times of
banking crisis the Reserve Bank becomes not only the banker's
bank but also the lender of the last resort.


Controller of Credit

The Reserve Bank of India is the controller of credit i.e. it has the
power to influence the volume of credit created by banks in India. It
can do so through changing the Bank rate or through open market
operations. According to the Banking Regulation Act of 1949, the
Reserve Bank of India can ask any particular bank or the whole
banking system not to lend to particular groups or persons on the
basis of certain types of securities. Since 1956, selective controls of
credit are increasingly being used by the Reserve Bank.

The Reserve Bank of India is armed with many more powers to
control the Indian money market. Every bank has to get a licence
from the Reserve Bank of India to do banking business within India,
the licence can be cancelled by the Reserve Bank of certain
stipulated conditions are not fulfilled. Every bank will have to get the
permission of the Reserve Bank before it can open a new branch.
Each scheduled bank must send a weekly return to the Reserve
Bank showing, in detail, its assets and liabilities. This power of the
Bank to call for information is also intended to give it effective control
of the credit system. The Reserve Bank has also the power to
inspect the accounts of any commercial bank.

As supereme banking authority in the country, the Reserve
Bank of India, therefore, has the following powers:

(a) It holds the cash reserves of all the scheduled banks.

(b) It controls the credit operations of banks through
quantitative and qualitative controls.

(c) It controls the banking system through the system of
licensing, inspection and calling for information.

(d) It acts as the lender of the last resort by providing
rediscount facilities to scheduled banks.


Custodian of Foreign Reserves

The Reserve Bank of India has the responsibility to maintain the
official rate of exchange. Since 1935 the Bank was able to maintain
the exchange rate fixed at lsh. 6d. though there were periods of
extreme pressure in favour of or against
the rupee. After India became a member of the International Monetary
Fund in 1946, the Reserve Bank has the responsibility of maintaining
fixed exchange rates with all other member countries of the I.M.F.

Besides maintaining the rate of exchange of the rupee, the Reserve
Bank has to act as the custodian of India's reserve of international
currencies. The vast sterling balances were acquired and managed
by the Bank. Further, the RBI has the responsibility of administering
the exchange controls of the country.

Supervisory functions

In addition to its traditional central banking functions, the Reserve
bank has certain non-monetary functions of the nature of
supervision of banks and promotion of sound banking in India. The
Reserve Bank Act, 1934, and the Banking Regulation Act, 1949
have given the RBI wide powers of supervision and control over
commercial and co-operative banks, relating to licensing and
establishments, branch expansion, liquidity of their assets,
management and methods of working, amalgamation,
reconstruction, and liquidation. The RBI is authorised to carry out
periodical inspections of the banks and to call for returns and
necessary information from them. The nationalisation of 14 major
Indian scheduled banks in July 1969 has imposed new
responsibilities on the RBI for directing the growth of banking and
credit policies towards more rapid development of the economy and
realisation of certain desired social objectives. The supervisory
functions of the RBI have helped a great deal in improving the
standard of banking in India to develop on sound lines and to
improve the methods of their operation.

Promotional functions

With economic growth assuming a new urgency since Independence, the
range of the Reserve Bank's functions has steadily widened. The Bank now
performs a varietyof developmental and promotional functions, which, at one
time, were regarded as outside the normal scope of central banking. The
Reserve Bank was asked to promote banking habit, extend banking facilities
to rural and semi-urban areas, and establish and promote new specialised
financing agencies. Accordingly, the Reserve Bank has helped in the setting
up of the IFCI and the SFC; it set up the Deposit Insurance Corporation in
1962, the Unit Trust of India in 1964, the Industrial Development Bank of India
also in 1964, the Agricultural Refinance Corporation of India in 1963 and the
Industrial Reconstruction Corporation of India in 1972. These institutions were
set up directly or indirectly by the Reserve Bank to promote saving habit and
to mobilise savings, and to provide industrial finance as well as agricultural
finance. As far back as 1935, the Reserve Bank of India set up the Agricultural
Credit Department to provide agricultural credit. But only since 1951 the
Bank's role in this field has become extremely important. The Bank has
developed the co-operative credit movement to encourage saving, to eliminate
moneylenders from the villages and to route its short term credit to agriculture.
The RBI has set up the Agricultural Refinance and Development Corporation
to provide long-term finance to farmers.

Classification of RBIs functions

The monetary functions also known as the central banking functions of
the RBI are related to control and regulation of money and credit, i.e.,
issue of currency, control of bank credit, control of foreign exchange
operations, banker to the Government and to the money market.
Monetary functions of the RBI are significant as they control and regulate
the volume of money and credit in the country.

Equally important, however, are the non-monetary functions of the RBI in
the context of India's economic backwardness. The supervisory function
of the RBI may be regarded as a non-monetary function (though many
consider this a monetary function). The promotion of sound banking in
India is an important goal of the RBI, the RBI has been given wide and
drastic powers, under the Banking Regulation Act of 1949 - these powers
relate to licencing of banks, branch expansion, liquidity of their assets,
management and methods of working, inspection, amalgamation,
reconstruction and liquidation. Under the RBI's supervision and
inspection, the working of banks has greatly improved. Commercial
banks have developed into financially and operationally sound and viable
units. The RBI's powers of supervision have now been extended to non-
banking financial intermediaries. Since independence, particularly after
its nationalisation 1949, the RBI has followed the promotional functions
vigorously and has been responsible for strong financial support to
industrial and agricultural development in the country.

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